Heart Relish in 'Surprise' Rock Hall Honor

Billboard -- Heart 's Ann Wilson says that she and guitar-playing sister Nancy Wilson are nothing less than "surprised" at their selection for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's class of 2013.

"I never even really thought it would be something that would come our way, to be honest, but thrilled -- beyond thrilled," the elder Wilson tells Billboard. "That kind of acknowledgement is just amazing. We're out there working so hard, and at times it can really feel like a tree falling in the forest that nobody knows about. So it's awesome. I am amazed I'm still trying to take it in."

Heart will join Rush, Randy Newman, Public Enemy and the late Donna Summer and Albert King at this year's induction ceremony, taking place April 18 in Los Angeles and taped for broadcast later on HBO. Producers Quincy Jones and Lou Adler will be inducted as non-performers.

"Crazy on You" Live in 1977

The Heart sisters also know their Rock Hall induction will be viewed as a tribute to their breaking male-dominated barriers in popular music during the 70s, which is something Ann Wilson says they "fought hardest against. This was really hard for a lot of reasons dude rockers don't understand. I guess this shows that we did kick some doors down, or at least kick them open a little bit, so it's going to be really amazing to get up there and say a thing or two about that."

Wilson says the induction is expected to include the other members of Heart's "Dreamboat Annie" lineup, including guitarist Roger Fisher, bassist Steve Fossen, drummer Michael DeRosier, and longtime guitarist-keyboardist Howard Leese, an experience she expects to be "very unusual" given the romantic entanglements and interpersonal dynamics of that time. "It'll be kind of like getting together with your old aunts and uncles who you haven't seen for 30 years," Wilson says. "We haven't really kept in touch with those guys. It's been a long time. I still live in Seattle and most of them do, too, but our paths just don't cross."

The induction announcement comes at the end of a busy year for Heart, which saw the group release a new album, "Fanatic," and a box set, "Strange Euphoria," while the Wilsons published their memoir, "Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock and Roll," in September, with "a lot of shows to do in 2013." Earlier this month the Wilsons were part of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., performing "Stairway To Heaven" in tribute to Led Zeppelin (which will be televised Dec. 26 on CBS). Does this mean Messrs. Page, Plant and Jones might owe Heart one for the Rock Hall induction?

"Oh, I don't see it that way," Wilson says with a laugh. "They pleased me to the depths of my soul all my life, so for us to get to turn around and make them happy for eight minutes, I'd call it even, y'know? But if something like that were going to happen, I don't know -- maybe I'd just melt like the Wicked Witch of the West."